ldrcycles wrote:Forgot to mention, saw the doctor on friday about the pain i've been having in my knees, and the balls of my feet (sesamoids, thanks to the latest Bicycling Australia for giving it a name for me) which have been hurting intermittently for most of this year. He did a fair bit of poking and prodding, the feet are fine, the knee ligaments are strong (PHEW!) and the only thing which may be amiss is platella something or other-my kneecaps not moving exactly the way they ought to. He gave me a referral for x rays of knees and feet to make sure, got them this arvo and my untrained eye can't see anything out of the ordinary.

ldr, join the club. My medical person said I had something similar and that it wasn't bad enought o operate so HTFU and it will bed itself in again after a "while". Actualy it is getting better with time and miles.

Had a lovely training ride this morning, up at 4am to drive over to Cooroy, then rode from there to Cudgerie to Blueberry Loop. 2.3k circuit that goes over a little creek, up a fairly steep hill to the top of a ridge to go across the top of the wide gully that feeds said creek, then a quick downhill. I reckon it should be really good for training in pushing hard over the top of a climb, it lends itself really well to that sort of riding. It was pretty cold this morning, but as my front derailleur wouldn't let me go into the small ring, my granny gear was 53-25, that got me warmed up alright! 32k in a bit over an hour and felt very good (though i would have felt better if i had that 39 available ).

Some tinkering now to put a 12-27 cassette on and get that front derailleur sorted ready for the Ride the Range.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

However that is because of driving 1000k in two days, not because of riding, so back on topic!

The weather was absolutely beautiful for the Ride the Range, definitely not as cold as last year (though still very cold) and not a cloud in the sky. Had a really good laugh when an official finished his briefing and was met with a round of 'blumf blumf blumf' from a couple of hundred gloved hands .Set off feeling good and then hit the descent (which i was naturally quite nervous about). Soon i was a lot more nervous, as my rear brake started making a high pitched buzzing sound and feel. As i carried on it got louder and stronger, and i started to notice an acrid burning smell. Well i was bloody terrified at this point, wondering if it was heat build up in the rims, or my brake pads were touching the tyre sidewalls, and in either case were my tyres or rims about to explode and leave me smeared all over the Toowoomba range? I decided that trying to come to a complete stop would be risky with the conditions of the road and the hundred odd riders behind, and so i just crossed my fingers (not literally, i could barely feel them) and hoped for the best.I got onto the flat alright though and then it was on like donkey kong, the first 20k took only 27:30 or an average of 43.6kmh! I marked one rider and thought to myself "i'm a pimple on that guys backside, i'm not going anywhere". As i thought that i also thought "unless he squeezes really hard and i pop", which of course is exactly what happened, the breakaway group stretched the elastic and in spite of my best efforts i had to admit defeat by the 37k mark. There are some hard (though short) climbs on the way to Gatton and i had a very hard time on them, but came through Gatton feeling good.

On the way back to Toowoomba i was caught by, and then latched onto, a paceline at the 70odd k mark and stuck with them until the start of the timed climb. After a k in, and with the group taking it VERY steady, i decided to go for broke, and charged off on my own. I reached the top of the Flagstone Creek climb ahead of them but was seriously hampered by the 39-27 gearing (with compact cranks that cog would have been about right) and really struggled for the remainder of the climb, having to climb off and rest for about a minute at one stage. A big difference from last year though, when i walked the entire length of the Flagstone climb.

Overall i managed the 100k in 3:35 or 28kmh. Not bad i think, and deserving of a good rest. So the first half of the week will be lots of rest and stretching, followed by a little light spinning. Then next week i'll start working again.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

I'm up to absolutely NOTHING at the moment . I've been crook with a cold all week and i'm just trying very hard not to get terribly dispirited due to the lack of riding. And it's been raining so i haven't been able to work on restoring old bikes either!

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Cheers mate, silly me i forgot to mention that, i had a quick look after the ride and everything looked perfectly fine . The pads are lined up properly, the rims aren't worn at all and it's never done that before. I need to go over it with a fine tooth comb to be able to say for sure but at this stage i just don't know.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

13 days now with NO riding . Just about back to health but with the weather being more towards the unpleasant end of apocalyptic it would be silly to go out into the rain and get sick again. sigh. At least i might be able to chuck the Dawes on the mag trainer tomorrow.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

FINALLY!!! Back on the bike at last and it felt SOO GOOD! Within the first few strokes i knew i was where i belong.

Today dawned bright and sunny, although a little windy so i hopped on the Dawes and headed for Alexandra Headlands, my chest and throat still felt a bit off so i didn't push too hard. Got to the turn around no worries then on the way back an idiot in a Subaru pulled out of a driveway in front of me (i had enough room and time to react but he was very much in the wrong). Quite annoyed, i checked there was no traffic behind me and pulled into the right hand lane to overtake The Incompetent One. I spent the next 2 minutes on cloud 9 as i overtook dozens of cars, sitting on 42-44kmh just flying. Of course after those 2 minutes, i realised i had been off the bike for 2 weeks with a cold, and i had completely cooked myself. I also realized that i was passing an almost constant line of traffic, so i couldn't pull back into the left hand lane, and obviously i couldn't just slow down and stay in the right hand lane. So i had to dig deep and keep pushing until a gap opened. I recovered alright though.

For any local riders who have been wondering about the new footpath between Pacific Paradise and the Maroochy River bridge, it's not quite finished yet...

Paris-Roubaix eat your heart out!

The big surprise for the morning was my routine sprint near the end, i wasn't feeling much chop coming up to it but had a go anyway, got back in the saddle at 47 and instead of just maintaining that speed as usual, managed to get it up to 53 and hold it there for 5 seconds . Now that i'm finally on my way back to good health i should be able to get some solid training in, as i am now on 'winter time' as i call it (i work in a pool shop, so in summer i work 6 days a week, plus 2 nights delivering pizzas, i now have mondays and tuesdays off for the next few months), time to get those 200+k rides happening that i've been wanting to do for ages.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

I'll be back on the bike tomorrow after 9 day soff with a cold (thank you work trip to Canberra!)... Did you feel like you lost much with the 13 days off the bike? Was it more you r endurance rather than speed - or a bit of both?

I'm very surprised at how little i've lost, seems to be a bit of both (in as much as you can gauge endurance from a 70k ride ). The lungs still weren't working quite as they ought to, so it might be more the aerobic side than any change in what i laughingly call muscles. If it isn't too cold on thursday morning i might try and get along to the group ride and see how i go.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Bad weather means everyone else will probably be off the bike as well ... Perfect time to train ... It's only water after all!.If you had 13 days off the bike and didn't notice much loss of fitness... Then you probably are a long way from peak fitness.

I don't understand why people get sick when riding in bad weather ?... even if you get a bit cold it shouldn't make you sick. The only thing I don't like about riding in a bunch in the rain is the amount of crap you get in your eyes,nose,mouth... still got red eyes from yesterday . Anyway trying to build up courage to go downstairs and clean my bike...maybe I will chuck it in the boot and hit the jet wash!.

Or if you took a dose of HTFU you could just ride the bike through said wash and clean rider and bike at the same time .I don't normally get sick often but my immune system seems to go AWOL if i don't get enough sleep, which has been the case lately. Now that i'm not working as much i should be able to get plenty of rest. Like they say, recovery is the most important part of training .

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Very pleased with things atm, last night did 42k on the singlespeed (it's basically the only reasonably quick bike i have working properly ) and went very well, backed that up with another 46k this morning before work, averaged just under 32kmh for both. The plan now is for about 80k saturday, group ride sunday then about 120k tuesday. In a week or two i want to build up to doing a couple of 200+k rides.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Saturday morning i rode to work on a Mercier i just finished restoring (the shifter cable came loose about 5k into the ride and i had to stop at a servo for a shifter to sort it) and rode pretty well, hammered it along pretty well on the flats. This morning i was intending to join the group ride on it, but slept in after working late saturday night. I was determined though, so set off anyway and absolutely smashed it, put in an effort that Merckx would have been proud of, Coolum to Noosa in 48 minutes which is damn good going for a bike that probably weighs around 12kgs. In spite of that i was still 15 minutes late, so i kept pushing hard to try and catch the group. By the time i had passed through Cooroy and reached Eumundi i had to admit defeat though, and carried on down the highway to go back to Coolum. I was actually intending for today to be a fairly easy recovery ride, so much for that but i did at least take it easy after Eumundi. 81k all up in 2:35, 31.3kmh average. Pity i didn't have the HRM on, it would have been interesting for the first 35odd k. When i got back i somehow had the motivation to not only do a full 30mins of stretching but some situps and pushups too . I need to make that a habit!

Just stretching tomorrow i think, then Tuesday i'm planning on about 100k at the most dignified pace i can tolerate, just easy easy easy.

EDIT: and just updated my tally (no GPS so it's all manual) up to 2997k for the year so far.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

An eventful morning today, headed out on the Scott for a recovery ride. I knew riding slowly was going to be tough, but i had a cunning plan . Even though it wasn't that cold i popped on my super warm long sleeve jersey and bib longs with long finger winter gloves. The idea being that if i pushed any kind of pace beyond 'crippled pensioner' i would get completely toasted. So off i went, i haven't ridden the Scott for some time and WOW is it a big difference from the old steelies i've been riding, the acceleration was brilliant. Definitely makes 'train heavy race light' sound right.I got down to Maroochydore, spin spin, 30kmh spin spin, and i was BORED. I might have coped with it better if it wasn't for a click-click click-click from the bike that was driving me absolutely mental, drilling into my head like chinese water torture. I think it might be caused by the cassette lockring not being tight enough (will have to check), but in any case it wasn't something i could fix on the road. I realised though that it was much less noticeable in the harder gears when i was sprinting out of the saddle. So you can guess what came next.Nicklin Way (3 lane road for those who don't know it), removal truck, and a 57kmh sprint to try and catch his slipstream. Wasn't able to make it but had an absolute blast trying. A few efforts had me feeling much better and soothed the itchy trigger fringer so i settled back down again.

And then the ride got really interesting, i hit a car. No no, not 'i got hit by a car', i hit him! Complete stupidity and negligence on my part, sitting at lights (which i do, no running reds for me thank you), 2 cars in front of me in my lane, lights change, i pushed off and looked down at my pedals as i had experienced a few issues with clipping in (cleats are fine, i'm just unco atm for some reason) and the next thing i hear is a crunch as i hit the fiesta in front which hadn't moved (maybe changing the radio or just not in gear or whatever, but in any case not his fault at all). He reacted predictably and i raised a hand in a 'sorry' gesture. Luckily he was stopping at a car park just up the road so i was able to follow him in, apologise profusely, check the car (no damage) and shake hands. I was a bit wary as he had several piercings and a bunch of 'tribal' tattoos but he was ok about it "accidents happen". I am still very embarrassed, lesson learned.

So all up, 64k at well under 30kmh average speed. Had a protein shake while writing this, and now to do about an hour of stretching before heading out to do some shopping and get a massage.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Life is all about learning new things. Today i learned many things. I learned that even when you think the temperature has reached absolute zero, it can get colder. I learned that leg warmers go UNDER your knicks, and there is a good reason why. I learned that there is a guy out there who rides with his son to school on Crossmax SLRs. And i learned that i am still nowhere near fast enough.

I got up at 3:45, got my stuff together and hopped in the car shivering so much i could barely turn the key. My car said it was 3 degrees and i should beware of 'Possible Icy Roads'. Wasn't it a great day for my long sleeve jersey and bib longs to be in the wash! The summer stuff would have to do, along with full finger gloves, arm warmers and leg warmers (which i had never worn before).

In spite of the weather a reasonable group turned up and we set off. You remember the clicking noise that was so annoying on my last ride? Well i tightened up that cassette lockring as it was a little loose and said 'aha! That'll fix it'. Yea sure like hell it did. CLICK CLICK it went, CLICK CLICK. Barely rode a k before there was an exasperated "who the f%*&$ is that clicking!?". sorry

The ride went alright though, after a call of 'car back' heading towards cooroy we were passed by two slow scooters. I said more to myself than anyone else "you only live once" and took off after them, almost caught em too . But i should know by now not to do that sort of thing on this ride as i need all the go i have for the last section. After a beautiful run through Black Mountain and Cootharaba (sun rising over mist etc etc aww isn't that wonderful) we rolled towards boreen point at a leisurely pace. All but one of the other riders turned around before we got into the town though, which seemed odd but i just kept going. Met up with another group at boreen point and turned around, and after a k or so decided that their 30kmh was a bit too slow. I saw the original group off in the distance so popped off towards them. Just before i reached them, the 2nd group suddenly roared past doing 40+! This ride confuses the hell out of me, i can never work out where or when it is suddenly 'on' but when it is they go nuts. I held with them at up to 52kmh for a few k but eventually dropped off (along with 2 others, so not too bad). Once i was dropped i didn't see them again but the remaining distance to Noosa went ok. The only downer being that by this time not only could i not feel my fingers, toes or face, i couldn't really feel my kidneys either, so getting into the car and cranking up the heater felt great.

Popped over to the river for some breakfast, then back to tinbeerwah, took the freshly restored Lawrencia out of the car and set off to do a section of the Noosa L'Eroica course. Went pretty well for the most part, not as nice as my Mercier but still a good ride, even with the massive jumps between gears with a 14-28 5 speed. Just a few k out of cooroy i notice a strange feeling through one pedal, and find the left crank arm had come loose. Had to Michael Milton it the rest of the way and even with that was only 40odd seconds down on the best time for that ride. I'll have to head out there again soon to get that time. The RACQ centre in cooroy were nice enough to lend me a socket to tighten the cranks and i got back to noosa fine.

More food, then home to sleep all arvo. I could get used to living like that .

I found it interesting to note the change in temperature, when i left noosa for the early ride the car said 6, when i got back 14, when i got back from the second ride 24. Sadly the smell was a constant (pizza, wd40 and sweat, yum).

Will rest tomorrow, then saturday i will try and sneak in a quick spin (might not have time), sunday possibly group ride, monday or tuesday planning on a 160k plus steady ride.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

I just sat down and read this whole thread in one hit, very interesting.

Obviously you didnt write about every ride you went on, but one thing that struck me was that you seemed to have lethargic legs too much, which says to me either your only writing about the times when you had a crappy ride, or you just smash yourself on every ride.

Have you ever thought about following a structured training program, even something as simple as ' The Lance Armstrong Performance Program' i read it and it was a pretty good read, if i had more time i would probably like to try it.

I envy you so much, you have this incredible mental toughness to drag your ass out of bed which i am TERRIBLE at, which is a bit of a downer for me, i would love to take riding alot more seriously but my only option to log more hours would be to hop up at rediculous hours like you. If only.

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